Featured photos

Canada got the last hurrah at the Celebration of Light Saturday evening, closing the three-night event with a winning display. Canada was declared the winner of the event, with Brazil and China finishing second and third, respectively.

Photograph by: Ward Perrin
, PNG

VANCOUVER -- Sentencing on Monday for a beauty contestant who admitted looting a London Drugs store was put over to next month because her lawyer wants to make new submissions on sentencing.

Sophie Laboissonniere of Richmond, 19 at the time of the 2011 Stanley Cup riots, has pleaded guilty to rioting. She stole a bag of chips, two bottles of water and a Canucks water bottle from London Drugs.

Crown is seeking a two-month jail sentence, but isn't opposed to Laboissonniere serving it in the community as a conditional sentence, or house arrest.

Her lawyer, David Baker, had requested a conditional discharge, meaning that after a certain amount of time, if she met her conditions, the offence would be wiped from her record.

Up until Friday, when rioter and Vancouver busker Mathew Lennox received the first conditional discharge, no rioter had been granted a discharge.

Lennox picked up a T-shirt thrown out of London Drugs by someone else, entered the store and watched looters for about two minutes, according to the Crown. Then he left briefly before returning to watch rioters for another two minutes.

He exited with a bag of gummi bears and the T-shirt, which he left on a bench outside, and left the area soonafter, when he saw riot police.

Judge Reg Harris said Lennox's case was "unique" because he didn't run through the store, cheer, laugh or incite others but entered the store out of curiosity and taking the candy was a momentary lapse in judgment, Crown said.

If he doesn't violate the conditions of his 15 months probation, he won't have a criminal record.

Crown will review the sentence, "however, Crown will be taking into account that the sentencing judge did conclude the specific behaviour of Mr. Lennox was different from other rioters," said spokesman Neil MacKenzie in an email.

Baker asked for an adjournment on Monday to make submissions to the judge about Lennox's discharge because it happened after the judge ruled on Laboissonniere's sentence.

Baker said outside court Monday Lennox was the first rioter in Canada to be given a discharge. (An 18-year-old from Surrey charged by Surrey RCMP with possession of goods stolen from a Granville Street store riot night, but not with rioting, received an absolute discharge in 2011.)

Crown has repeatedly argued a discharge is inappropriate for rioting because of the seriousness of the charge and because a discharge wouldn't deter others or sufficiently denounce the crime, the two paramount principles of sentencing in these cases.

Baker said Laboissonniere, who won Miss Congeniality in the 2011 Miss Coastal Vancouver pageant, has received more media attention than any other rioter.

He also noted that Laboissonniere volunteered to give seminars on her experience to her old Richmond high school and spoke to 700 students, as a way of making amends.

But Crown Patti Tomasson noted Laboissonniere had spent hours downtown in the midst of the riot before deciding to loot.

About 300 looters entered London Drugs, which suffered $900,000 in losses.

It has filed lawsuits against several looters, but Laboissonniere wasn't named in the suit.

The five-hour riot on Jun 15, 2011, caused $4 million in damages and made news around the world.

About a hundred youth and adult rioters have been sentenced so far, with sentences ranging from 20 months in jail to a conditional discharge. Almost another 50 have pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing.

One rioter, who pleaded not guilty, was sentenced to house arrest after being convicted at trial after video showed him using a street barricade to smash a window, and another 15 trials are scheduled.